(AWESOME POST) 12 WARNING SIGNS OF A DANGEROUS CHURCH by Pastor Kevin Shell

With the rise of mega churches everywhere and there being some kind of church literally on every street corner in America. A sobering question comes to the forefront that begs to be answered. Has God actually entrusted every mega church and every church that’s on every street corner in America to represent Him? The following are 12 WARNING SIGNS OF A DANGEROUS CHURCH. Prayerfully this will help those that are fatally attracted to the false bride that masquerades itself as Christ bride and TRUE CHURCH.

2 Timothy 4:2-4 2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage —with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

1. A COMPROMISED GOSPEL – If there’s an absence of preaching Christ and Him crucified, His atoning sacrifice on Calvary, justification through faith, repentance, and other important essentials that encompass God’s plan of salvation, and an authentic walk with Christ after salvation that produces biblical fruit then this could be a MAJOR WARNING SIGN that this isn’t a church that you want to plant your family in… In other words if THE GOSPEL is being compromised with false teaching, easy- believism, or constant miracle and musical services, don’t be like that silly family in scary movies that stays in the house even after it hears a voice from somewhere telling them to GET OUT!!! This isn’t a movie this is your life and you and your family’s eternal souls are what’s at stake. Regardless of how large or small the ministry is you can safely conclude that if the gospel has been compromised, trust and believe; there are other compromises…Its time for you and your family to GET TO STEPPIN! The Gospel is NON-NEGOTIABLE!!!

2.ABSENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT – The Holy Spirits presence and power is vital to getting Gods business accomplished in and through men. Contrary to popular opinion great music and emotionalism have little to do with whether The Holy Spirit is present or not. His presence brings forth TRUTH, CONVICTION OF SIN, HEALING, POWER and RENEWAL. His absence leaves men to attempt to carry out Gods work inside and outside the church in their own strength. If you’re in a church where the Holy Spirits presence is absent and there’s only a form of godliness and powerless religion, be on guard! It won’t get better as you’ll see!

3.ABSOLUTE AUTHORITARIANISM – If you’re in a church where the pastor is a controlling God figure that can’t be questioned, nor approached without old testament armor-bearers, you may not even be in what most of us consider a church. You may be in a CULT! This can partially explain the absence of the Holy Spirit! If this behavior is followed up by things like the pastor having a say in where you go, whether it’s a good time for you and your wife to have children (yes this happens), and having to know how much money you make, this is not of God. This type of abuse of spiritual authority is found in many churches, and should not be taken lightly, nor be mistaken for loving accountability. In these types of churches the pastor’s sense of self-worth is tied up in how well he can control the congregation. Sexual abuse is also common in these types of ministries. When the ruler eventually gets wind that you and your family are leaving, you’ll be told that you’ll be cursed with a curse and that a fiery inferno awaits you and your family on the other side of the church doors. It’s also typical that all former members are the enemy and were wrong for leaving and are to be shunned. Just know that these environments thrive on ignorance of the Word of God and fear. Know also that if you didn’t see a fiery inferno on the way in, you can leave out of the same door with a Godly assurance that your heavenly father will lead you to a healthy church.

4.CARNAL LEADERS – I’m sorry but if you walk in a church and the pastor, prophet or evangelist has multiple tattoos and piercings and is pimp slapping people in the name of Jesus and calling it a move of God…RUN FORREST RUN!!! Jesus even warned not to chase false moves of God that bear His name in the last days. If the pastor and leadership constantly uses carnal means to attract and keep a church full of carnal people thus depriving the starving remnant that want and only need THE TRUE GOSPEL take note. This may not be the church for you. If divorce, infidelity, wife and husband swapping are a current theme of THE LEADERSHIP by all means, don’t plant your family in this type of toxic atmospheres. Carnal atmospheres breed compromise and lukewarmness. These churches keep the spiritually undiscerning on a steady diet of regurgitated MIRACLE, SEASON, BREAKTHROUGH, and FAVOR messages that keep the hearer, carnal and immature in the faith. So please!!!…I beseech you brothers and sisters by the mercies of God…Don’t subject your family to carnal leadership. I don’t care who they are…Family included!

5. THE LOVE OF MONEY – Listen carefully…MONEEEEEY COMETH to those that have a job and work hard. I don’t care how much Hebrew and Greek a preacher pretends to know! I don’t care how big of a church or following they have…YOU CAN’T PLACE A DEMAND ON GOD FOR MONEY, and there’s no biblical example of anyone crying out to MONEY! If you’re in a church where money is always the focus and the pastor talks about money all the time, you’re in a den of iniquity, and a house of horror! If you’re in a church where your Pastor subjects the church of Jesus Christ to ponzi schemes, get rich quick investment gurus, or brings in prolific offering raisers that come in town to make merchandise of you…. RUN!!!! The bible is very clear…

1 Timothy 6:9 People who want to get rich FALL INTO TEMPTATION AND A TRAP and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.

Get out of these financial TRAP HOUSES that deceive the masses to chase empty lifestyles!

6.LACK FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY – What typically follows THE LOVE OF MONEY? It’s usually lack of financial transparency and accountability! If you’re in a ministry that lacks financial integrity and operates in financial secrecy, this is not a WARNING SIGN you want to ignore. Churches with high integrity are financially transparent and have checks and balances in place to help keep them above scrutiny. This even includes being financially transparent to its members. At some point you have to ask…If the church is hiding money…What else are they hiding???

7.HOMOSEXUALITY – If the landscape of your church has changed to the point where along with the homosexual organist and choir director, there is a now a section for homosexuals and the Pastor hasn’t lovingly addressed homosexuality from a biblical perspective FROM THE PULPIT, trust and believe that he hasn’t addressed it because he’s either GAY, or he’s planning to start preaching some form of INCLUSION (universalism) to cash in on that demographic. It’s that simple! Anybody that knows anything about the homosexual agenda knows that it comes to boldly take over. Any thinking that ANY church can survive the leaven of unrepentant homosexuality is foolish and any resemblance of compromise in this area should send you packing!!! Don’t let Pastor’s caught up in OBAMAMANIA, or the new norm and direction in society sway you away from what’s right in the sight of the Lord.

8.SEXY/ WORLDLY WORSHIP – If the spirit of BEYONCE has taken over or you start hearing PARLIAMENT/FUNKADELIC, JILL SCOTT and U2 songs in the worship, this is just another sign of CARNAL LEADERSHIP. Cleavage, club music, and 9 inch stilettos are inappropriate when God is supposed to be the focus. What happened to heart felt worship that puts God on display instead of men? If the spirit of lust goes unchecked and is allowed to manifest itself openly in the house of God. Imagine what goes on when the music stops?

9. RACIAL OBSESSION – If you’re in a church that through false doctrine and manipulation has you constantly nursing and rehearsing the historical sins of this nation and has you thinking or operating in a perverted sense of RACIAL PRIDE…Get you and your family out of that toxic atmosphere! The spirit of RACISM keeps men in a perpetual state of delusion that keeps one thinking that their fight is physical when the bible is clear our fight is spiritual.

Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

If you’re in a church that lifts up BLACK POWER, WHITE POWER, JEWISH POWER, or any power other than CHRIST POWER, this is not of God! The only color that God has obligated Himself to embrace is the RED flowing blood of His Son! His blood has the POWER to cleanse all men who by faith put their trust in Him! Now am I saying it’s a sin to celebrate BLACK HISTORY MONTH, ST PATRICKS DAY, or other celebrations of ethnicity and heritage? Certainly not!!! I am however warning you to GUARD YOUR HEARTS from hype men that aim to preach to your lower nature and continue to keep your emotions stirred with racial issues. Again your battle is and always will be spiritual!!!

10.CHILD SACRIFICE – If you are in a church that refuses to engage the next generation and sacrifices them on the altars of the secular idols of this generation, you’re in a DANGEROUS CHURCH! Find a church that challenges your children to live for God. Find a church that will teach your children that this world is not their PLAYGROUND, but a BATTLEGROUND for their souls. The assumption that the only way to reach the next generation is through carnal secularized ministry is false. The notion that they can’t be reached without Harry Potter, Twilight Vampires, Lady Gaga, and Hip Hop is a lie from the devil! Don’t lend your children youth ministry’s that dumb down Christ to reach their youth. There is a young generation that desperately wants God and refuses to be sacrificed and aborted.

11. UNGODLY ALLIANCES – If your church is connected to the Tea Party, Democratic or Republican Party, Occupy Wall Street or any other political movement beware! That pulpit could be bought and paid for. The church that was bought and paid for with the blood of Jesus Christ should not be under the yoke of political persuasion. Other examples of UNGODLY ALLIANCES include Freemasons and other secret societies, The LGBT community, Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups, Hollywood and the entertainment industry, Ungodly Celebrity Preachers, Bubble Gum Gospel artist that moonlight between the church and the world, New Age guru’s like Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, and Iyanla Vanzant just to name a few. Who a church is aligned with says volumes about how it can influence error in those under its teaching.

12. DENOMINATIONAL PRIDE – If you are in a denomination that claims that THEY are the only way, and that THEY and all their pet peave doctrines and ordinances are the only truth, be cautious of what may be denominational pride. JESUS is the way, the truth and the life, NOT YOUR DENOMINATION OR ORGANIZATION! Be leery of any denomination that trumpets itself as superior. While it will always be important to contend for the essential of the faith, and preach biblical truth, in the end, only God Himself can properly settle the peripheral or non-essential issues that often divide denominations. But if you see and hear denomination before you see or hear Christ, it’s a good sign you’re in a church that IDOLIZES their organization! AGAIN, IT’S NOT ABOUT YOUR CHURCH!!! It begins and ends with God.

Unfortunately we’re living in a time when we have to ask ourselves, and more importantly ask God…LORD, AM I ROOTED IN A SAFE PLACE, AND HAVE YOU ALSO CHOSEN THE PLACE I’VE CHOSEN TO REPRESENT YOU? If you you’re in a safe place, praise God! I know that there are some great ministries out there! But if you indentify with some of these WARNING SIGNS mentioned above, seek direction from your heavenly Father to lead you to safety. Hit me in my inbox if you’d like prayer. Lastly, if you know that this message would benefit someone you love, forward it to them and pray that they would also find refuge in a safe place of worship. God bless!